This past weekend I went to the annual Appalachian Studies Association conference in Cookeville, Tennessee. One talk I recorded was one by Ryan Comer of the Appalachian School of Law. He spoke on the challenges facing lawyers working in legal deserts. A legal desert is a region where there is less than one lawyer per 1,000 residents. I thought I would take a look at legal deserts in Pennsylvania.
Nationally there are 4 attorneys per 1,000 citizens according to the American Bar Association. Pennsylvania ranks 13th among states with 3.8 lawyers per 1,000 residents. New York has the highest concentration of lawyers at 9.5/1,000. Vermont, with a population of 623,000 has the 5th highest concentration of 5.8/1,000. Arizona has the lowest concentration at 2.1/1,000.
Of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, 24 meet the definition of a legal desert. The 10 counties with the lowest concentration of lawyers are: Forest, Fulton, Bedford, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, Armstrong, Potter, and Clinton Counties. These are also some of the least populous counties in the state.
The counties with the highest concentration of lawyers are: Philadelphia, Dauphin (where the state capitol of Harrisburg is located), Allegheny (where Pittsburgh is located), Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Lackawanna, Cumberland, Washington, and Bucks Counties. These are some of the most populous counties in Pennsylvania. You can see the data for all 67 counties here.
Comer explains that the difficulties for lawyers in these deserts go beyond having to serve their clientele alone. They often lack access to legal libraries and databases to research case law. This makes it doubly difficult to adequately serve their clients.
We have discussed news deserts on this site. Food deserts are a common problem here in the Alleghenies. Legal deserts in Pennsylvania is a new term for me and is likely highly correlated with these other deserts.